2008 Paralympic Games

Day 2 - Sept. 10

2008 PARALYMPIC GAMES:  U.S. Archery Individual Elimination Rounds

Although Archery competition was officially jumpstarted yesterday, today's Individual Elimination Rounds were the first to threaten medal chances for the U.S. team.

The competition drew the team's numbers back to six when Russell Wolfe (Williamsburg, Va.) was eliminated after a 31-point loss to Italian archer Oscar de Pelligrin. Chuck Lear (Lee's Summit, Mo) was also eliminated in the Men's Individual Compound W1 after losing to Canadian archer Norbert Murphy by 23 points.

However, the U.S. chances for a medal have far from fizzled; Kevin Stone (Kodak, Tenn.) was the first U.S. archer to step up to competition this morning. After finishing10^th in yesterday's ranking round, Stone beat Amit Dror of Israel by four. His success is one step closer to a medal and means a head-to-head with Mario Vitale of Italy in the 1/8^th Elimination Rounds tomorrow. He will need to mimic today's success through Friday's 1/4 elimination rounds before making it into the medal finals on Sunday.

Eric Bennett's  (Surprise, Ariz.) medal chances in the Men's Individual Compound-Open tightened this afternoon when his face-off with Kweon Hyun-Ju of Korea resulted in a tie, each with 106 points. Two arrows into the three-arrow shoot-off, Bennett stalled Kweon's competition after shooting a nine to beat Kweon's eight.

Bennett will have to draw his success out in order to beat British archer John Stubbs tomorrow in the 1/8^th Elimination Rounds. Stubbs' performance in the ranking round yesterday resulted in a first place ranking and one of the four world records broken. Stubbs' first-rank score of 691 happened to be American archer Joe Bailey's (Flushing, Mich.)  June 2007 record of 679.

Good performance is rewarded, and for Bailey and teammate Jeff Fabry, (Tulare, Calif.)  their sixth and second place rankings meant a day away from competition. Fabry will not compete again until the Men's Individual Compound W1 quarterfinals on Friday morning. Meanwhile, Bailey will compete against Kejic Kallunki of Finland in tomorrow's 1/8^th elimination rounds in Men's Individual Compound-Open category. Bailey's opponent also had the benefit of a bye today and is a Gold medalist from the 2003 World Championships. However, his 11^th place performance yesterday fell short of Bailey's ranking.

Despite also having her record broken yesterday by Korean archer Lee Hwa-Sook, Lindsey Carmichael (LargoVista, Tx.) kept her 13^th place rank after beating Chinese archer Wang Yanhong, the reigning Gold medalist from the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. Her next challenge is beating the 4^th seed Magali Comte of Switzerland in tomorrow's Women's Individual Recurve Standing 1/8^th eliminations.

For more information regarding the results:http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRMP/ENG/Schedule/AR.shtml